Short History About Paul McLaughlin
 
Stop Child Abuse by Paul M. McLaughlin since 1975 from Donora, Pennsylvania to
Portland, Oregon by a Handicapped and a Survivor.
Paul graduated from Donora High school in 1970 at the age of 21----Speacial
Education and cheated on the written test to get into the army.
Paul subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon in 1972 after serving 2 years in the 
army at Fort Dix, New Jesey and to Frt Lewis, Washington. A elderly
woman discovered Paul and taught Paul to read, spelling, typing. In 1975 to 2001,
Paul began his One Man works of telling and helping abused children on radio talk 
programs and television program. 
 
One man's story on the web was very interesting, yet very sad. A man by the name of
Paul Mclaughlin describes his story of abuse sustained as a child. He also describes
how he has been helping the fight to stop child abuse from occurring since nineteen
seventy-five. He encourages other people living in similar pain because of child
abuse to contact him by mail or e-mail and tell their stories of abuse. He collects
the stories and has a link on his web page so people browsing the web can read about
these other people's stories of child abuse. Paul Mclaughlin's story of abuse as a
child is a terrifying one. He was abused along with his twin sister for twenty
years. His family consisted of four children one boy, one girl and a set of boy,
girl twins. Paul was the boy twin in his family. His older brother and sister were
not abused. The violent actions that their parents committed against the two twin
siblings were absolutely dreadful. They were sat on a hot stove, made to eat their
own stool, tied up and beaten with a stick and belt, stood in the corner for long
hours, and made to eat soap. This type of abuse would happen to the twins not once a
month, but every day. No one at school asked about the red marks left from the
beatings. It seemed to the twins that there was no one to tell of the abuse. After
Paul Mclaughlin tells his story of child abuse along with his twin sister, he
encourages others to get their stories of past child abuse off their chests by
speaking about them on the web. Paul is currently trying to stop child abuse from
occurring in the world rather than letting the abuse that he incurred have negative
effects on him such as abusing his own children. He is trying to do something rather
than letting the abuse that he suffered as a child take over his life. The stories
of child abuse by other people that Paul set up a link for on his own web site are
very real and many are different from Paul's story of child abuse. There are many
different types of child abuse such as sexual abuse or mental abuse and these types
of abuse affect everyone differently. Some people suffer negative effects while
other others turn the negative effects of abuse into something positive in their
life. They may set up an organization for awareness of abuse or some other form of
organization that shows that they have not let the abuse sustained when children
take over the rest of their adult lives. 
 
The other stories linked to Paul Mclaughlin's site show how different people try to
deal with the abuse that they have sustained as children. Some people just tell
their story from start to finish including names and details, while others allude to
the type of abuse that they sustained as children and leave out the names of the
aggressors altogether. There is not one good way or right way to tell the story of
child abuse. It is just important to let a person get the story of abuse off of
their chest, which is what Paul tries to get people to do by having them send their
story via e-mail to him. This also allows the victims of child abuse to get in touch
with people who have gone through similar abuse and who may identify with them
better to go over their stories of abuse together. 
 
One story that Paul Mclaughlin had a link to on his site was a horrifying story
about a girl by the name of Heather. Heather's parents were only married because of
her mother's pregnancy with baby Heather. Her father left soon after baby Heather
was born and her mother was a drug addict who was too strung out to care for baby
Heather. Heather's grandparents, being the saints that they were, offered to care
for the baby. Instead of being the saints that people thought they were because they
offered to care for Heather, her grandparents turned out to be real monsters who
thought of baby Heather as a toy for amusement. 
The grandmother tried to drown her in the bathtub at age three and soon after her 
grandfather began to rape her. For the next nine years her grandfather raped her
continuously and at age twelve she ended up pregnant with her grandfather's baby. 
Her grandmother then performed a wire hanger abortion on the bathroom floor. 
Heather was not allowed to have boyfriends or even speak to boys on the telephone. 
When she turned sixteen she became pregnant for the second time with her grandfathers 
baby. Instead of straying around to have another coat hanger abortion Heather packed 
her bags and went to a clinic to have a real and somewhat legal abortion. She then 
went to live with her mother in her welfare apartment, finished high school, and 
worked three jobs to raise money for a future college education. She is now a senior 
in college and is about to graduate and get a college degree. The negative effects 
that the abuse she sustained as a child had on her later in life were obvious in 
her personal relationships with members of the opposite sex. She seemed to not make 
the best decisions when it came to boyfriends. One boyfriend raped her and another 
beat her. She was used to this, which may have been why she allowed herself to get 
into situations with boys such as these. 
Heather did make it to college and has almost graduated, which shows that she has 
great motivation since she has obviously not gotten any support or motivation
from her parents or grandparents. It seems that the abuse had more of an effect on
her personal life in the way of relationships with the opposite sex. Heather's story
of abuse as a child and the way that it affected her later in life in her choices in
relationships is in actuality a very common story. 
 
There are other ways in which child abuse may affect a person such as the story of
Jennifer. Jennifer's story is very much like the previously mentioned story of Paul
Mclaughlin. Jennifer has a twin, just as Paul does, and suffered through physical
abuse starting as a child until the day that she left for college. She suffered
through being hit with hangers, beaten with wooden cooking utensils, and slammed up
against walls. Up until the day that she wrote her story as a link to Paul's web
site she had not told her story at all publicly. She had not wanted to tell her
story publicly because she did not know if there was anyone who would understand
where she was coming from. Sending an e-mail to Paul Mclaughlin about her story was
a way for Jennifer to reach out and ask for help with dealing with the abuse that
she has suffered. It seems easier to speak to people who can really truly relate to
your own experiences than to speak with therapists who can only speak about the
things that they have read in textbooks or learned in study for their career, but
who have no personal experience in the field of child abuse. Jennifer does not
explain how the abuse that she sustained as a child affects her personally in her
present life. She does state though, that she has felt very confused and could use
someone to answer her questions about what happened in her childhood. Paul
Mclaughlin's web site helps people like Jennifer by giving them a way to release
their story of past child abuse and speak to other people who genuinely relate to
them personally. Paul's site helps people such as Jennifer with their pain. 
 
A story is told as a link to Paul's site about a person by the name of Morgan Night.
Morgan Night was sexually abused or raped at age eight by a male figure that she
loved and trusted. As it has been stated in this paper, everyone deals with the pain
of child abuse differently. In the case of Morgan Night, she repressed her feelings
of pain for twenty years. This is a very common way for people dealing with the pain
of child abuse to react. By repressing their feelings, they do not have to deal with
the pain. Once Morgan Night began to remember the memories of the sexual abuse she
sought therapy. It was very hard for her to speak of the painful memories, so as
suggested by her therapist she began to write down her memories. Morgan Night has
found one very creative way of expressing her feelings, which is through poetry. 
She speaks of a poem entitled, "Lost," in her e-mail to Paul Mclaughlin. This poem
describes the inability of Morgan Night to scream during the rape and the
nothingness that filled her soul because of the lost childhood. Morgan Night seemed
to turn her repressed feelings from the sexual abuse that she encountered as a child
into something positive just as Paul Mclaughlin did. Her reason for putting her
story on the web was to collect other stories from survivors of child abuse to help
her put together a book of poetry, prose, and artwork by other female survivors of
sexual abuse as a child. Morgan Night is hoping to put together a book that reflects
the survivors feelings and reactions to the sexual abuse that was inflicted upon
them as children. Morgan Night uses the web as a tool which will help to enable her
to put together a book on stories of survivors of child abuse. She included an
address for people to write to as well as an e-mail address for people with access
to e-mail. The story of Morgan Night is yet another example of how past child abuse
affects people in many different ways positively and negatively. 
 
The story written on the web entitled, "A Flower Growing in the Desert: My Story,"
is about a twenty-five year old women named Holli Marshall. Holli was raped at age
five by an eighteen year old male baby-sitter. From the age of eight until she was
fourteen she was raped repeatedly by her brother who suffered from mental
retardation. She was also raped by about six different boys in the neighborhood from
age of ten until she was about fourteen. Holli's mother has dissociative identity
disorder or what is formerly known as the multiple personality disorder. Her mother
abused in every way other than sexually. She was suicidal and had tried to commit
suicide numerous times since Holli was born. She would try to commit suicide right
in front of Holli by slitting her wrists or overdosing on pills. Holli's father was
an alcoholic and tended to be controlling as well as being emotionally, verbally,
and mentally abusive. Her parents would always tell her how unlovable she was and
she was constantly told to "shut up." Holli was severely neglected and abandoned as
a child, so it is for the most part a miracle that she survived through her
childhood. The effects that this abuse as a child has had on Holli are amazing and
terrifying. Holli has been diagnosed with anorexia and post-traumatic stress
disorder (P.T.S.D). She also suffers from severe anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares,
and flashbacks. The effects that the abuse that she has sustained as a child have
had on her have been very disabling. Her life may never be normal because of the
negative effects of the abuse that she has to deal with every day of her life. Holli
is hoping by writing her story on the web that she will help to increase the
awareness of child abuse in this country. It is important for people to understand
just how severe the consequences of child abuse can be for the survivors of the
abuse many, many years after the abuse has stopped. Holli states that her husband
calls her a "flower growing in the desert," since she has grown and blossomed into a
wonderful women even in a harsh environment. In order for Holli to help in the
awareness of child abuse, she began a Mint Green Ribbon Campaign for the awareness
of child abuse. Holli Marshall would like people to show their support of building
awareness of child abuse by wearing a mint green ribbon. Holli even sent a copy of
her story and her mint green campaign to President Clinton and legislators to gain
their support in her plight for awareness of this horrible problem of child abuse
plaguing this country's future generation. She is very serious about making people
aware of the child abuse happening in this country and hopes to get a lot of support
for her campaign for awareness. Holli attached a mint green ribbon to her site for
people to download. Holli uses the web as a way to promote her campaign for
awareness of child abuse. 
 
The many stories of child abuse told by the real life survivors of the abuse provide
a great way to really show that child abuse is not like a rare disease that only
affects certain sectors of the population. Instead child abuse has the ability to
affect anybody and everybody in society. The survivors of child abuse who tell their
stories of abuse publicly do so for a number of reasons. Telling their stories of
abuse publicly can be a part of the long process of healing from of abuse. By
telling their story of abuse they are able to release feelings about the abuse that
they may not have ever really paid much attention to. Describing just how the abuse
occurred and how they felt when they were being abused allows the survivor to vent
their feelings and get their feelings off their chest. Being able to tell one's
story of abuse sustained as a child is one way and only the start of the healing
process. There are many people that may never fully recover from having been abused
as children. The abuse that a person may sustain as a child may effect the person's
life in many ways, even if they undergo lengthy counseling about the abuse. The way
that child abuse may affect a person's life is shown very clearly in the previously
cited stories of abuse. The effects of the abuse may be very different depending on
the type of abuse and the type of person who sustained the abuse as a child. It does
not matter what the type of abuse, or how it has effected the person, everyone who
has sustained abuse as a child needs to ask for help. They need to get some kind of
counseling to help them deal with the negative effects of child abuse so that they
can go on to lead as normal and happy of a life as is possible. The web may be a
wonderful resource for a person who has been a victim of child abuse to learn about
the possible effects that it may have on them and to reach out and find an
organization to help them deal with the numerous effects that it may have had on
their life.
http://www.efn.org/~scan
scan@efn.org